Minnesota Poll: 57% favor mix of cuts and taxes on deficit

02/06/2005

Patricia Lopez, Star Tribune
February 5, 2005 POLL0205

While most Minnesotans say state budget cuts have had little effect on them personally, more than one-third say those cuts have hurt them. Meanwhile, a solid majority say the governor should abandon his no-tax-increase pledge and pursue a mix of spending cuts, user fees and tax increases to balance the state budget, according to the latest Minnesota Poll.

The poll shows that 36 percent of all Minnesotans say they have been hurt by recent state budget cuts. Women and middle-aged Minnesotans were more likely than others to say cuts had hurt them. Those who reported the least impact tended to be Republican—73 percent say the cuts have had no effect on them.

People with more education and higher incomes were also among the most likely to call for an end to politicians’ no-tax-increase promises. Among those earning $75,000 or more, 66 percent favored a combination of tax increases, users fees and budget cuts.

Overall, 57 percent said the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty should rely on both tax increases and spending cuts to resolve the budget crisis, while 30 percent said they should hold to their commitment not to raise taxes.

Opposition to tax increases was strongest among Minnesotans earning less than $30,000, with 49 percent saying Pawlenty should stick to his pledge.

More Republicans (47 percent) favored the combination approach than favored continuing opposition to tax increases (36 percent).

Poll respondents were about evenly split on whether the state’s tax and budgeting system needs major change.

Dan McElroy, Pawlenty’s chief of staff, said he was concerned that 36 percent of Minnesotans believed they had been hurt by budget cuts, “but I’m not surprised. We certainly take the impacts seriously.”

Nevertheless, he said, “The governor continues to believe that not raising state taxes is the best policy.”

Since he was a candidate, Pawlenty has made the no-tax pledge his signature position. But some pro-tax sentiment appears to be surfacing at the Capitol. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, proposed increasing gas taxes by a nickel a gallon and tacking a surcharge onto car sales in order to fund transportation projects.

Minnesota is in its fourth full year of budget crisis, with projected deficits that have persisted far into the nation’s economic recovery. Local economists and state budget officials now say that the economy is no longer the source of the state’s budget dilemma, that revenues are growing nicely.

Pawlenty has said that the latest projection that tax revenues will grow 8 percent in 2006-07 shows that the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Frank Weber, 52, of South St. Paul, agrees. “There’s no need to raise taxes,” said Weber, who was a computer programmer “until my job moved to India.” Weber, who leans Republican, said that government should first cut wasteful spending. “Light rail, for instance, costs an arm and a leg. It’s not profitable and probably never will be.”

Diane Petersen, 50, of Coon Rapids, is convinced that the budget cuts have hurt her job-hunting efforts. Despite six months of job-hunting and more than 400 résumés, she has been unable to find work in her field, as an accountant. All the budget cuts, she said, “have made the job market tighter, I think.” Now, she said, “I think those in higher tax brackets should be taxed a little more.”

But Petersen, a DFLer, said the state also should start being less generous to those at the bottom. “We give too many people a free ride in this state,” she said. “All the homeless people come here because the benefits are so great. I know people who won’t work full time because they’d lose medical assistance for the four children they had by four different fathers. Minnesota takes care of them all, because we’re a bunch of idiots. We’ve got a handout for everyone.”

Education concerns

The area where the state has historically spent the most is now also the area of greatest concern to Minnesotans: education. Anxiety over the state of education in Minnesota is at its highest level in 20 years, with one in every five Minnesotans naming it as the single most important problem facing the state.

The economy and taxes came in second and third—14 percent and 13 percent, respectively—while health care was a rather distant fourth, at 8 percent. Crime, once a staple among the state’s top problems, has virtually dropped off the radar, at only 2 percent. Moral and family values, thought by some to have played a pivotal role in the November elections, each came in at 1 percent.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said the poll was evidence that public displeasure over recent budget cuts is “real and growing.” In education, particularly, he said, “people clearly see class sizes increasing, faculty laid off, buildings closed and capital expenditures delayed. They know their children are not getting an equal opportunity to compete in life, and that hurts.”

Opposition to tax increases among those making less that $30,000 is predictable, Johnson said. “They’re already paying a higher percentage of their salaries for taxes. Just trying to provide the basics for their families, so they’re not interested in having taxes go up.” Those making $75,000 and up, he said, “understand the difference between spending and investments and they want to make investments in the basic services of our state.”

Johnson said that Senate DFLers have not committed themselves to proposing a tax increase until they’ve thoroughly examined Pawlenty’s budget proposal and seen the February economic forecast, due at the end of this month.